Smooth flow

Inland waterways have benefits in terms of cost and the environment

The Uttar Pradesh government’s decision to leverage inland waterways to move export-bound cargo to international seaports seems a welcome step towards developing a multimodal transport system in the country. Though the intention of this land-locked state, quite clearly, is to use the vast stretch of the river Ganga to carry goods directly to the Haldia port in West Bengal for shipments abroad, the integration of the Varanasi-Haldia inland waterway with the existing roads and highways network would translate into a convenient and coherent cargo and passenger transportation system. What is even more important is that it might, hopefully, spur other